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INDEPENDENCE OF CUBA. 



REMARKS 



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HON. GALUSHA A. GROW, 



OK PENNSYLVANIA, 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



£ 1° 

5^ b 



MARCH 31, 1S98. 



WASHINGTON. 
I898. 



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' V HON. GALUSHA A. GROW. 

i, *- The House having under consideration the naval appropriation bill — 

Mr. GROW said: 

Mr. Chairman: I am induced to trespass upon the attention of 
the committee for a few minutes by the remark of the gentleman 
from Texas [Mr. Bailey] that if Congress had recognized the 
Cuban patriots as belligerents this war would have ended long 
since. This prediction of what inight have happened if something 
had been done that was not done leads me to claim the attention 
of the House briefly. 

Belligerency means what? That the Government recognizes 
two parties in a contest as engaged in a war for supremacy. That 
would not relieve this Government from its obligation of strict 
neutrality between them. It would have to maintain it the same 
as it has been doing. Not a gun, not a man could go to help the 
Cuban patriots under belligerency that can not go to-day. They 
could have had no aid nor assistance more than they have had 
during this time that the Government has been watching these 
movements. 

This Government made England pay over $15,000,000 for not 
observing strict neutrality after she had recognized the belligerent 
rights of the Confederates in our civil war, and we should have 
involved ourselves in the danger of a war long before this had 
belligerency been recognized. Spain would stop an American 
vessel to overhaul it to see if it had contraband of war, and the 
doctrine of this Government, proclaimed and maintained in the 
second war of independence, was that the flag protected all over 
which it floated and no right of search could be permitted to any 
nation. 

A chance shot would have opened all the bloody drama of a 
war long ago, in my judgment; and my prediction is just as good 

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^x as the prediction of the gentleman from Texas that the war would 
have been ended. 

Belligerency, therefore, would have been of no advantage to 
the patriots on the Island of Cuba. I have regarded this question 
from the first, Mr. Chairman, as simply resolving itself into one 
thing in the end. 

When the day should come when this Government would feel 
justified in its own right and position on this hemisphere, in view 
of the public sentiment of the Christian world, to recognize the 
independence of Cuba, then it would become our duty as Ameri- 
can citizens, our duty to the country and to the common cause of 
liberty and the rights of humanity, to maintain and declare the 
independence of the patriots of Cuba; and that would be a warn- 
ing to Spain that she must withdraw her control over Cuba, and 
if it was not done it might then be the duty of this Government 
to intervene with military force. 

There was a time when the Spanish flag floated over more of this 
hemisphere than the flags of all other nations, and she had on this 
continent more territory than any other nation. But she has 
lost it all. Cuba and Puerto Rico is all of this mighty posses- 
sion that is left under her flag. The day is soon to come when 
Cuba must be free: and it is only a question of time. I would 
say to gentlemen you can have war any day. That question will 
keep. No danger of losing the opportunity. [Laughter.] 

That seems to be the trouble with our impatient friends on the 
other side, that they are afraid of losing a chance for war. [Laugh- 
ter and applause.] Mr. Chairman, when the time comes for the 
recognition of the independence of Cuba, and I think it is near, 
if war must come as a result, I think a little delay of the war 
would be better. If we are to begin the war in the rainy season 
in Cuba, what would be the effect? The men sent to Cuba, not 
acclimated, would, most of them, find a grave in the island in the 
rainy season, the same as the Spanish soldier. 

The climate has killed more Spanish soldiers than the arms of the 
patriots, and will continue to do so. God Almighty is on the side 
of the patriots in Cuba, and their salvation will soon come through 
the aid of climatic influences. It is impossible for a nation to 

bring soldiers enough 3,000 miles over the ocean to conquer a 
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brave people, though they may be comparatively few in numbers, 
as our fathers proved in the Revolution. From reliable informa- 
tion from two hundred and fifty to sixty thousand Spanish sol- 
diers have been sent to Cuba. 

[Here the hammer fell.] 

Mr. GROW. If the House will indulge me for a couple of min- 
utes, I shall be through. 

There was no objection. 

Mr. GROW. Spain has sent of her sons already 250,000 or 
260,000 to Cuba, and to-day, by the best information that can be 
obtained, tliere are probably not to exceed 30,000 fit to take the field. 
How long would it take her to conquer Cuba? 

The climate has done its work and will continue to do its work; 
and when the rainy season is over this year, Spain must send reen- 
forcements again, as she has done every year heretofore, or aban- 
don the contest. In view of that state of things, the executive 
department of our Government can, by negotiation, settle the 
question in a short time, so that Cuba shall be an independent 
nation, and the great Republic will welcome the patriots of Cuba 
as a sister republic. 

In the war between England and Spain, before our Revolution, 
England attempted to wrest Cuba from Spain, and then of the 
men from Connecticut and Massachusetts who under the British 
flag attempted to take Cuba, of all who landed upon the island, 
only a small remnant returned to their homes. The climate did 
for them what the climate has done for the Spanish soldier and 
would do for ours in the rainy season. 

In conclusion, I think the time is near at hand when this Gov- 
ernment should recognize the independence of this people as a 
sister republic struggling as did our fathers for the great princi- 
ples of our own Declaration of Independence. When that is done, 
this Government must be ready to see to it that recognition secures 
the independence of this people. [Loud applause on the Repub- 
lican side.] 
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